RWJF / September 30, 2015
Oyler has undergone a transformation over the last decade—from a school plagued by increasing poverty and declining enrollment to a school that is boosting graduation rates and helping improve the surrounding community. Oyler ensures students and their families have access to healthy meals by providing kids breakfast, lunch and dinner and sending them home with food on the weekends. It is part of a movement to create “community schools” that address kids’ health needs and get them access to resources that allow them to succeed in the classroom and for years to come.
At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we are collaborating with others working to build a culture that values health—promoting, sustaining and safeguarding it—everywhere, for everyone. And schools are central to building this Culture of Health. Second only to children’s families, schools shape children’s futures. We’ve seen the research—promoting social and emotional skills, increasing access to pre-school education, providing access to healthy foods and activities, and forging public-private partnerships to bring services into schools all help children thrive. Oyler is one of many schools across the country that is putting research-driven ideas into action. We need more like it.